The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-06-23
Ignorant Of Their Own Co,untrv.


London Letter to the san Francisco Argonalt.
There are no people at home who know so
much about the great places of interest in
London as do Americans 1t is a curious
fact, and one ms pitiable as it is curious, that
but few Englishmen, as you meet them,
have ever been inside the Tower of London
of the British Museum. | remember not
lorg ago speaking to a gentleman from San
Francisco on this very subject, and the APP
paren lack of interest, which English peo-
pie display in regard to their own country.
They wander all over the gle be, from the
North Pole to the Antarctic Continent, in
search of sights and wonders, and never once
dream of investigating anything at home,
either before they go OF after they get back.
He sai id:
"Do you know, the same idea has struck
me very forcibly! If you viii pardon my
saying so, | never met people of any coun-
try, and / have travelled considerably, who
were so ignorant of their native land and all
that makes it of interest to the foreigner
While they go rambling about the world
for recreation, and can tell you much about
things worth seeing in other places, they
know positively nothing about England.
Ask 'em, and see. When abroad they pene-
trate the jungles of India, cross the de ierts
of Egypt and South Africa, climb the
mountains of Switzerland and rough it on
the plains of the fan West, but when at home
they live the lives of stereotyped gentlemen,
content to pass their days in their clubs or
in their country houses, doing tie same
thing every day from one years end to the
other and caring for nothing but their own
immediate personal surroundings They
| play tennis and cricket in summer, go to q
| few horse races, because it is the fashion
shoot grouse, cartridges and pheasants in
autumn, and hunt foxes in winter. Beyond
| these things they care not button for any
thing. Curiously enough, they don't re-
| alize it in themselves, though sharp enough
| to detect the same defect in others.
| One of the men | refer to asked me the
other day something about the Yosemite
Valley.
81 have never been there told him.
| ''He let his glass drop out of his eyes, sc
great was the elevation of his eyebrows, as
he held up his hands in amazement.
"'What! BY Jover he exclaimed. Fancy
never seeing the Yosemite Valy, and you've
lived in Frisco all Englishmen call il
Frisco how many years.
| I" Over twenty. You see, could go any
| day. We think nothing of a hundred or two
miles in California
| "'Why, man alive, went six thousand
miles there, and six thousand back again
| don't you know, to see the Yosemite my,
self He looked very proud of himself as he
said this.
" Look here said l after minute, to LET
him enjoy his self-complacency, have you
even seen Stonehenge!
| "What! N-no.'
| " OR the Giants CausewayF
emo
Cor Shakespeare's house at Stratford-on
| AvonP
'N-no.'
I" 'Or Hampton court, or the Towerr
| L" 'N-no.'
8" Then you mustn't talk to me about
never going to the Yosemite. The Tower
is about three miles from here. I've been
there half dozen times already, but don't
mind going again. Let's jump into han
som and drive there now
HE looked thunderstruck. THE Tower,
he said; isn't that the place the Aries go to
on bank holiday! Not to-day, please; I've
an engagement to drive with a chap in the
park. Ta-ta.'
That's pretty much the way with all OF
| themn